Art: Too Far Gone by Robert FerrierReclaimed
The barn thrived for three generations,
barn doors flung wide hosting children on hay hoists,
October called dances with stolen embraces under a bat’s roost, an owl’s screech,
the breeze joyous in the wheat, its golden hue reflecting on the barn’s whitewash.
In ’08 a plank or two loosened,
field mice and copperheads sibilant in the silo hold, farm loans a fault
on the tectonic plate, a crow’s shriek, but murmured urgings within the soil,
whispers swirling within the windbreak, the wood’s memory, upwelled.
When trade tariffs reaped the wheat,
unbaled, strewn on the ground like locust husks blackened,
crops moldering in suffocated dreams,
the breeze stilled, succumbing to cicada sirens.
The barn stooped, beams becoming bow backed,
reclaimed by kudzu coiling.
About the author:
Steve Gerson, an emeritus English professor, writes poetry about life's dissonance and dynamism. He's proud to have published in Panoplyzine (winning an Editor's Choice award), The Hungry Chimera, Toe Good, The Write Launch, Ink & Voices, and Coffin Bell.
Art: Too Far Gone by Robert Ferrier
In the artist's words:
Robert Ferrier is a retired university research administrator living in Norman. He received a BA in Journalism and an MBA from the University of Oklahoma. He has published two novels at Amazon Kindle ebooks. His photo, “Magnolia Morning,” was the cover of the Summer, 2016, Dragon Poet Review. His photo, “Sunflower,” was the cover of the Summer, 2017, Dragon Poet Review. “Diagnosis in Stasis,” was the cover of the Fall, 2012, Blood and Thunder, OU College of Medicine. His poems have appeared in, Dragon Poet Review, Red River Review, Oklahoma Today, Blood & Thunder, Crosstimbers, Westview, Mid-America Poetry Review, The Exhibitionist and Walt’s Corner of the Long Islander. In 2007 the Norman Galaxy of Writers nominated him for Poet Laureate of Oklahoma. His influences in poetry have been shaped by poets who write clear, passionate verse: Howard Nemerov, Billy Collins, Pablo Neruda, Ted Kooser, Elizabeth Bishop, Ruth Stone, and Seamus Heaney. In photography, he has developed increasing interest in abstracts.
